Aegaleo police chief arrested for extortion of migrant store-owners
The head of the police precinct in Aegaleo, western Athens, was detained on Wednesday by officers of the force’s internal affairs unit for the alleged extortion of immigrant store managers and owners.
The officer is alleged to have conducted raids on stores, on the pretext of looking for counterfeit cigarettes, before blackmailing the migrants into paying protection money.
The suspect was caught after a Bangladeshi store-owner refused his demand for cash.
Police are seeking a retired policeman and a Pakistani national alleged to have worked as accomplices with the chief suspect.
In a related development in Halkida, police announced they had broken a protection racket said to have been preying on stores on the island of Evia.
Four Greeks and an Albanian national were detained.
